DVD SP (Remember DVDs?)

Hi Group,

I have a client who needs DVDs of his project. I haven’t made a DVD in at least 7 or 8 years and I had to retrain myself. Anyhow I keep getting this message when I try a Build & Format to make an DVD Image.

Formatting was not successful. The image exceeds
the maximum allowed size for a single layer
configuration.

I cannot figure out what I’m doing wrong. Maybe exporting wrong? I’m doing as I remember always before, straight export using Quick Time conversion. At least that's how I think I used to do it. I really need some advice here.

These are the specs for FCP and DVD SP

Mac OS 10.8.5 / FCP 5.1.4 / DvdStudioPro 4.1.2

Frame Size 720 x 480
DV/DVCPRO - NTSC
NTSC - CCIR 601

Sequence Settings
720x480 NTSC DV (3.2) Anamorphic 16:9

Export as Quicktime Movie -- 30.02 Minutes/6.83 GB

DVD SP Prefs
Display 16:9 Letterbox
Encoding MPEG-2 SD / 16:9
Bit Rate 4.0 Mbps
Max Bit Rate 7.0 Mbps

Thanks,

Ben Bryant NYC

Hi Ben,

Been a very long time.

Are you exporting from FCP as a QT self-contained movie?

--ken

Yes it has been a long time. How you doin'? I do miss our conversations, not to mention the Mexican food.

I mis-wrote above; I am exporting from FCP as a QT self-contained movie. This is driving me nuts.

Going to bed now maybe you or one of your fellow geniuses will have a solution for me in the morning.

Ben Bryant NYC

Hi Ben
A single sided DVD can only hold ~4.7GB your project is 6.83GB
Try burning to a double sided DVD ~8.5GB


Hope this Helps, Greg

Thanks Greg, but that's not an option. I tried reducing the file size with QT compression and with Turbo but that wouldn't work either. The message was wrong video format or something like that.

Is there a way to reduce the file size and still make it acceptable to DVD SP?

Ben Bryant NYC

Ben, try exporting a master file from FCP, (Self contained without conversion). Run that through Compressor and then take the assets into DVDSP. It always worked better that way.

I've been cutting with FCP since V 1.0 but I've never used Compressor. What are the proper settings?

Thanks,

Ben Bryant NYC

Open & look at the pic I attached,

The QT file I imported to DVD SP was 4.18 Gb, the size at the very top of the screenshot in the DVD SP window says 844.2 Mb and yet in the build and format window under DVD-ROM Data is says 66.16 GB.

What the hell is going on???

HELP! Thanks,

Ben Bryant NYC

Ben - In Compressor, use the DVD settings that closely match your video's duration. Compressor will create an .M2V and an AC3 file. Import those two files into a new DVDSP project. At that point, you can add additional chapter markers and/or a menu if needed. If no menu or chapter markers are needed, simply give the DVD a name, and set first play to Track 1 - then burn (Build & Format).

If you have Toast on your Mac, you can also burn a DVD from there. Just import the self-contained movie from FCP into the VIDEO tab and choose DVD-Video. Toast will encode and burn the DVD from there. One last thing: Epstein didn't kill himself.

-DH

Hey Ben
Do you happen to have iDVD? iDVD was actually a very nice DVD authoring program with templets/Titles and playback options.
Might want to give it a try. Seriously. I almost always used iDVD if I could.

Ken's Home page has lots of old articles on DVD SP, iDVD and Compressor. Go to the Home Page and scroll down. We are dealing with history here and Ken is still hosting lots of great articles. I have been using these resources for over a decade. Thanks Ken

As to your issue, I think you still are attempting to create too large of a project, and it seems to be growing. I think your project is attempting to encode all assets not just the final master file. Click on the "Choose" for the DVD-ROM Data file and see what is being included. You might want to re-export the Master file as David says to a new location and then point to that for DVD creation.
Again, the pop-up dialogue is saying you need to use Double layer DVDs or you will need to push the compression to get all the data on the disc. Not clear why you could not use a double layer disc?

I think David's suggestions are essentially the same and I also use Toast, but the Menu and chapter markers leave lots to be desired in Toast. My workflow for DVDs included making a "Test Image" file out of iDVD then I would use Toast to do the last encoding and writing to disc. Toast is much faster in burning the discs than iDVD, especially when making multiple copies.

Best of Luck, Greg

Yes, I reread all those DVD articles. "attempting to encode all the assets" is the main problem. The size of that last number is the clue.
Your suggestion about asset in a new location is probably the solution. I thought of that as I was going to sleep last night.
BTW I tried iDVD but couldn't get the aspect ratio right.
As soon as I finish my caregiving duties today (or tomorrow) I'll give it a new try, moving the asset and starting from scratch.

Thanks,

Ben Bryant NYC

I finally got it. The solution was simple. In the screenshot the thing that was causing the problem was "in the build and format window under DVD-ROM Data is says 66.16 GB." I un-checked the "content" button and that 66 Gigs went away and the disc image was built.

Thanks for all the input.

Ben Bryant NYC

I spoke too soon. What I got was not a DVD image. I burned the thing and it was ... something else that wouldn't play. I have to re-read all the articles and figure out where I erred. Oy Vey!!

Ben Bryant NYC

Oops, On my excitement I burned the wrong thing. I do have a good DVD image. Thanks.

Ben Bryant NYC